Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has directed the country’s armed forces to deliver an immediate, decisive response without geographical restrictions to any external aggression, official state news agency IRNA reports.
The directive was issued during a high-level strategic conclave convened in Tehran on Saturday, October 31, 2026, attended by top defence chiefs, including Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Ali Abdollahi, Army Chief Commander Amir Hatami, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander-in-Chief Ahmad Vahidi. Addressing the military leadership, Khamenei warned that should foreign adversaries initiate fresh hostilities against the Islamic Republic, Iranian forces and the civilian populace will independently dictate the time, terms, and conditions for concluding the conflict.
As part of the operational order, the Supreme Leader instructed commanders to revise and expand the military’s strategic targets database to bring all tangible and intangible assets belonging to the United States and Israel within direct operational reach. Khamenei emphasised that establishing maximum deterrence requires intelligent combat readiness, a fortified intelligence architecture, and the integration of emerging indigenous technologies across all defensive and offensive echelons.
The warning was echoed across the political establishment, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stating that any strike on Iranian territory would be met with an overwhelming counter-offensive, asserting that historical red lines are obsolete. Concurrently, military spokespersons cautioned that unilateral foreign intervention would rapidly cause hostilities to engulf the wider Middle East.
The escalatory rhetoric from Tehran unfolds amid soaring regional friction following naval tanker explosions in the Strait of Hormuz, cross-border aerial incursions over the Arabian Peninsula, and high-level defence briefings held in Washington assessing military contingencies across the Persian Gulf.
